


all you need is someone to hold you and tell you that it’s going to be alright

by escapismandsharpobjects



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, I'm Bad At Summaries, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26591179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapismandsharpobjects/pseuds/escapismandsharpobjects
Summary: Nick has a nightmare, Hank is there and does what he can.
Relationships: Nick Burkhardt & Hank Griffin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	all you need is someone to hold you and tell you that it’s going to be alright

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Welcome to this fic I wrote very very quickly bc I am Feeling Things and what better way to deal with that than to project that all into nick, right? Aaaanyway the premise of this is they are in a hotel for a case and it’s not really relevant but this is set after the s4 finale but not everything that happened in s4 happened. Basically take this as like half canon compliant I guess lol, it’s not really important to the story anyhow. Anyway yet again I did in fact write this solely for Me but I’m posting it bc I feel like it, hope u enjoy!

Hank wakes up suddenly, blinking in the pitch-blackness of the hotel room, unsure of why he’d woken up at all. He scrubs a hand down his face and turns to look at the glowing red numbers on the clock. Barely past two in the morning. He groans and closes his eyes again, hoping to fall asleep before he becomes any more cognizant. 

And snaps them open again when he hears a noise from the other side of the room’s partition.  _ It’s just Nick, _ he thinks.  _ Sleeping soundly, just like I should be.  _

Not ten seconds later, he’s tumbling out of bed at a scream from the couch, raw and terrified and desperate, one word over and over again:  _ “NO!”  _

Hank stumbles his way over to the couch as quickly as his freshly woken legs will allow. He flicks on the lamp sitting on the table, which does nothing for Nick besides illuminate his face, pale and sweaty and screwed up into an expression of pure agony. He screams again, and Hank reaches out an arm to shake him awake. 

Nick’s eyes fly open, and he sits up straight, breathing heavily and looking around like a prey animal, unsure of where he is and of the threat his surroundings may pose. 

“Nick.” Hank doesn’t know what else to say. 

Nick’s wide eyes flick over to Hank, then away, as though he’s seen nothing. He blinks rapidly, shaking his head like he’s trying to organize his thoughts. 

“Nick,” Hank tries again, wanting to calm him down. “Nick, it’s okay, you’re safe.”

Nick’s eyes find him once again, and this time stay focused. Hank takes this opportunity to give Nick a brief once-over: his whole body is trembling, and stiff-looking, and he’s taking barely-controlled gasps of air. 

“Breathe, man,” Hank suggests, placing a hand onto Nick’s shoulder. 

Apparently that touch is all it takes to break down whatever walls Nick had quickly thrown up the second he’d woken. A sob tears its way out of his throat, raw and painful and slightly scratchy from the screaming. Before Hank can figure out how to best approach this situation, Nick is full-on crying, the light from the lamp catching on the tears rolling down his face, making them shine in a way which you would think might be strangely beautiful, but really isn’t. It’s just... _ sad. _ He makes this terribly soft keening sound and looks at Hank like he doesn’t know what to do, and something in Hank, something innate, maybe, or left dormant after his wives, knows what to do. 

He pulls Nick to his chest, wrapping one arm securely around him, resting the other against the side of his head and running the fingers through Nick’s hair. He doesn’t know what is the best thing to say, and so he says nothing, and for several minutes the only sound in the room is Nick, just Nick, the most human Hank has ever seen him, every semblance of the different masks he wears daily stripped away. This is the Nick underneath, the Nick even Hank rarely sees. Just as afraid and vulnerable as anybody else. 

Slowly, Nick’s hands loosen from their iron grip on the back of Hank’s t-shirt, but other than that, he makes no attempt to move away, leaving his face firmly pressed into the soft cotton of the shirt, long since soaked through with tears. 

Hank continues doing what he can, stopping the movement of the hand in Nick’s hair and letting it rest atop his head, but never letting go of him for a moment. 

“I’ve got you,” he says. He’s not completely sure what Nick had been dreaming about — he’s got plenty of ideas, none of them the least bit  _ okay, _ and so he has no idea how true what he says is, but he says it anyway, because it’s what you do: “it’s gonna be okay.”

Nick sobs again at that, quieter and less painful, and nods, almost imperceptibly, against Hank’s shoulder.

They remain in the same position for some time, neither one having the slightest inclination to move, until Nick’s head drops for a second. He snaps it back up immediately, so violently that Hank startles, and suggests he be a little more careful. 

“You can go back to sleep, it’ll be okay,” he offers, unsure if this is true but wanting Nick to get as much rest as he can. 

“I can’t-“ Nick starts, and cuts himself off. “Can you-“ he tries again. “Would-“

Hank picks up on the forever unasked questions:  _ I can’t do this alone, can you stay, and would you help me? _ “You think I’m letting you sleep on an uncomfortable hotel couch after this?” he asks, charitably not bringing up the fact that he’s pretty sure the couch has absolutely nothing to do with it. “Come on man, no way. The bed’s big enough for two anyway, if we don’t sprawl out.”

He feels Nick smile faintly against his shoulder. “Come on,” he says, giving him a hand up. He pretends not to notice how much Nick is still shaking. 

The second they reach the bed, Nick is burrowing under the covers, hiding his face in a pillow. Hank follows him immediately, staying as far away as possible, unsure of how far each of them will permit themselves to go. 

He doesn’t have to think about this for long, though. Nick rolls over, flopping an arm across Hank’s torso and nearly kicking him in the shin. Hank relaxes, and gives Nick’s leg a gentle push away. 

He stays awake for some time until he hears Nick’s breathing even out, and then some more after that, in the hopes of protecting him, he supposes, though it sounds a little naive, if he should have another nightmare. 

He doesn’t. The remaining hours of the night pass by peacefully, far more than they would have had the two spent the night separately. And if, in the morning, they wake tangled together in the middle of the bed, warm and peaceful and  _ safe, _ well. That’s for  _ them _ to know. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! This was deeply and incredibly self indulgent but you know what I really needed to write something and probably needed to write this specifically lmao. Anyway I’m probably going to write a companion fic to this one from Nick’s pov at some point in October (whumptober babey!!) so if u for some reason liked this then lookout for that!! Once again thanks so so much for reading this story and please let me know if you like it!!! Have a great day/night!


End file.
